Braman Mayor Sandbek resigns after 3 months

After facing months of polarizing political division in the small Kay County town he called home, Braman Mayor and 1st Ward Trustee Marvin Allen Sandbek submitted his resignation to the town's Board of Trustees last week. His resignation will go into effect Monday, August 19.

Sandbek, a U.S. Air Force veteran who was elected to the board in April of this year, announced his resignation in an email Friday morning. In a two-page resignation letter addressed to the people of Braman, Sandbek explained “the rationale behind this painfully difficult decision.”

REASONS FOR RESIGNING

For the small-town mayor, small-town politics were just too much.

On average, Sandbek said he worked eight to 10 hours each day – including weekends – to perform the duties of his office. That workload – combined with the “numerous criticisms” of “patrons, citizens, and those individuals who simply 'have an axe to grind'” – was more than Sandbek could handle, he wrote.

“Colleagues in municipal government across Oklahoma warned me about disgruntled citizens, complaints, criticisms, phone calls at all hours of the day and night, and infrastructure failures at the most inopportune times. Quite honestly, I had no idea how inconsiderate and downright 'nasty' some people can be! It seems that rumor and innuendo [have] more credibility in some circles than facts and truth!” Sandbek said.

Others also noticed the lack of respect Sandbek received as an elected official. Blackwell City Manager Janet Smith attended several meetings of the board, and she said the people of Braman treated the mayor “like a slave.”

“I don't feel that the criticisms of him were justified,” Smith said. “Government can be a difficult thing to understand and explain. But as a public official, I would expect that he would have been treated respectfully and not as an employee of the city. Although we are public servants, we are not slaves, and we should not be treated as if we were.”

Sandbek said he made the decision to resign in order to protect his health and well-being, spend time with his growing family, and embark upon adventures “on the highways and byways of North America.”

Sandbek concluded his letter by saying: “Thank you for the opportunity to serve. It has been a privilege and an honor to do so.”

LOOKING BACK ON HIS TENURE

Sandbek began his letter by talking about why he decided to run for a seat on the board in the first place. He put his name on the ballot “at the prompting of others [who were] driven by concern for our community.”

“It began with a shared concern for the future of the community, and a common belief that a municipal course correction was necessary,” Sandbek wrote.

Sandbek campaigned on the goals of restoring the town's financial solvency, performing a full audit of its financial records, and rebuilding its dated infrastructure. His opponent was Mike Barton, the incumbent mayor who had held that office for over a decade.

On election day, Sandbek won by a mere four votes, an outcome that foreshadowed the challenges the new trustee would face in bringing the divided community together. The election served as the first demonstration of the town's stark political discord, which Sandbek described as “difficult” to deal with.

“The community was divided and opinions on both sides of 'the issues' were abundant and diverse,” Sandbek wrote. “I chose to run a campaign based upon the idea of a 'Better Braman,' focusing on principals rather than personalities. [It was] a campaign message and philosophy of improvement and optimism. … However, it is now clear that I underestimated the full scope and detail of the goal to help create 'A Better Braman.' There are so many deficiencies and problems to address. It is difficult at times to know what to do first!”

After winning the trustee's office, Sandbek was appointed to the office of mayor by the Board of Trustees during a heated April meeting. In that meeting, the board voted three different times for two different people to become the town's mayor. The contest for the town's top job was between Sandbek and 3rd Ward Trustee James Lunn, who had just won his reelection bid. The first two votes – which would have given the job to Lunn – were thrown out because they were not made in accordance with Robert's Rules of Order, the meeting guidelines used by governing bodies.

After Sandbek was appointed to the position of mayor, then-municipal clerk Sandra Barrows walked out of the meeting and subsequently resigned. Barrows walked away from her post without handing over computer passwords, keys, and other financial information to the town, trustees alleged. The town wasn't able to regain access to the information for weeks, and officials eventually discovered that some records had been deleted, trustees alleged. The following day, the city's utilities superintendent, Damon Horton, would also resign.

Just one week after Sandbek became mayor, the Board of Trustees voted to hire municipal judge R. Stephen Haynes to serve as the town's special legal counsel. While trustees never officially said why they hired Haynes, sources with knowledge of his work say he was hired to find out which financial records had gone missing.

Haynes never commented on the scope of his investigation.

RESTORING FINANCES

Sandbek once said that the financial situation he found in Braman was “grim.” But during his tenure, he wrote, things began to turn around.

“When I started working for you, we had less than $2,000 in the general fund, and four of your certificates of deposit (more than $75,000) had been cashed in during the past two and a half years,” Sandbek wrote. “Operating expenses were out of control, with more than $100,000 per year (over 30% of the annual budget) being spent on pay and benefits for two employees. Our municipal budget was in disarray. Corrections had to be made quickly.”

With the help of Smith, Sandbek was able to begin sorting through what he called a “case of very poor fiscal management” by the city's administrators. In his letter, he stated that “operational control and fiscal management” had been restored to Braman thanks, in part, to “selfless servants” who performed work for the town – which had previously been done by paid employees – at no cost.

In June, the board – at Sandbek's urging – voted to hire local CPA Kimberlye R. Mayer to conduct a full audit of the town's 2017 – 2018 financial records. That audit was nearly a year overdue, and trustees will still have to complete an audit of the 2018 – 2019 fiscal year within the coming months.

WILL NORMAL SERVICES CONTINUE?

The Journal-Tribune spoke with Eric Gove, one of Braman's two municipal maintenance workers, on Monday afternoon. Gove and Trudy Rowe are responsible for reading the town's utility meters and maintaining the town's infrastructure. According to Gove, those services will continue “uninterrupted.”

FILLING THE VACANCY

Now that a vacancy exists on the Board of Trustees, the two remaining trustees will have to appoint an acting mayor and find another trustee – soon.

Under Title 11, Section 12-105 of Oklahoma state law, when a vacancy on a town's governing board is created, the two remaining trustees must first appoint an acting mayor. That mayor will serve the rest of the unexpired term, which – in this case – will be almost four years. Sources have indicated that Lunn, who sought the seat back in April, will be now appointed to it.

After appointing a mayor, trustees must then find another Braman resident who is willing and legally qualified to serve on the board. The state mandates that the vacancy be filled within 30 days.

In order to serve on the board, a prospective appointee must be a registered voter and must live in Braman.

The Journal-Tribune spoke with 2nd Ward Trustee Darlene Johns Monday afternoon to ask when the trustees would appoint an acting mayor. She said the trustees were waiting to speak with the town's attorney, Haynes, to ask for guidance on how to appoint an acting mayor. According to Johns, the board will hold a special meeting tomorrow night – Thursday, August 15 – at 7 p.m. Meetings are held at the Braman Town Complex, located on north Broadway Avenue in Braman.

WILL SANDBEK'S WORK CONTINUE?

Maintaining day-to-day services may not be the biggest problem the town will have to face.

Smith had worked closely with Sandbek to help “fix” the town's finances. She felt that Sandbek was making progress in restoring the town's financial solvency and rebuilding its infrastructure.

But now that Sandbek is gone, whether his efforts will continue is up to the two remaining trustees.

“Marv had more determination and drive to make Braman better than anyone else. In his absence, that cause will suffer,” Smith said. “Someone will have to step up, but I don't know who that will be.”